SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 6b and 7)

NOTE: Please have massive respect to the late creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, Stephen Hillenburg, who passed away due to ALS on November 26th, 2018. He will always be our ocean man.

SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 6b and 7) "Aw, *dolphin noises*." - SpongeBob when Zeus Cervas flanderized him. Gender: Male Type: Squidward's Creepy Obsessive Stalker The Annoying Side of SpongeBob SquarePants Age: 36 Species: Sea Sponge Portrayed by: Tom Kenny (English) Taiki Matsuno (Japanese) Kim Seung-jun (Korean) Luis Carreño (Latin America) Wendel Bezerra (Brazilian Portuguese) Ido Mosseri (עידו מוסרי; Hebrew) Vladislava Đorđević (Serbian, B92) Status: Alive Media of origin: SpongeBob SquarePants First appearance: Help Wanted

"What a lucky break, Now I have a captive audience!"

— "Choir Boys"

"I'm sorry Plankton, but that flies in the face of my good nature."

— "One Coarse Meal"

"Gary! You put Fluffy down right now!"

— "A Pal for Gary"

Robert SquarePants (more famously known as SpongeBob SquarePants, born July 14, 1986) is the titular main protagonist of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series through his nickname and Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years one of the main characters in The Patrick Star Show, and the deuteragonist of the upcoming Netflix spin-off movie Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie. He was designed by the former marine biologist, Stephen Hillenburg. Stephen Hillenburg based SpongeBob on Bob the Sponge, a character he had created for his educational book "The Intertidal Zone" in the late 1980s. He is voiced by Tom Kenny.

Unfortunately, he suffered from a bad case of flanderization and some character derailment in seasons 6b and 7 including the infamous video game SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom, starting with “Boating Buddies”.

Background

SpongeBob SquarePants is the main protagonist and the eponymous character of the Nickelodeon animated comedy of the same name.

SpongeBob is a childish, eccentric sea sponge who lives in a pineapple in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, a job which he is exceptionally skilled at. SpongeBob lacks a lot of knowledge and is a constant annoyance to those around him (especially Squidward Tentacles), but he is very good natured (or at least he tries to be).

SpongeBob has also appeared in numerous media including video games and movies.

"Barancles!" Qualities

Note: This only applies to his character as depicted in seasons 6b-7 of SpongeBob SquarePants, where he was flanderized.

1. He has gotten badly flanderized from a somewhat childish, yet optimistic protagonist to an extremely obnoxious, idiotic, immature, unfunny, troublemaking, melodramatic man-child.
   • He has lost almost all of his charm and likability from the first four seasons, though it varies whether he's in character or not in seasons 5, 6a and 8, depending on the episode.
   • SpongeBob can be annoying and immature at times in the earlier seasons and later seasons, but not to this extent.
   • Before and after flanderization, it was admittedly rare for him to act like an adult, but he still had some levels of maturity. However, during these seasons, he almost never does.
   • He is supposed to be an adult, but he has the mentality of a toddler who either cries or feels extremely exciting.
2. He is either so happy or too emotional.
3. He mostly has clumsy/accident-prone moments and a Butt-Monkey in the series.
4. He is a crybaby who constantly bursts into tears over the pettiest reasons, with "A Day Without Tears" being the worst offender of such. Heck, not even Pearl, Mr. Krabs' daughter, is that much of a crybaby in this season in comparison to the first three seasons.
5. He also has the tendency to do terrible things, and never gets any real consequence for them, such as:
   1. Acting like complete moron when worrying about Sandy going on a “dangerous” rodeo by kidnapping the townspeople in trapping them with bubbles and bringing them to his house instead of doing it by himself or with only Patrick (it makes sense in context) in "Rodeo Daze".
   2. Apparently lacking in empathy.
   3. In “Waiting”, he is very impatient of wanting a toy from a cereal box instead of just working at the Krusty Krab and wait for it (yeah, Squidward was already working and left the job).
   4. Horribly mistreating Gary by gratingly scolding and blaming him for things he clearly didn't do and telling him "what do you have to say for yourself?" instead of thanking him when he saves his life (in the same episode, by the way; and not to mention, he also stole a pet from a store, and also ignored the pet saleswoman's warnings about Puffy Fluffy's own species getting along with other animals) in "A Pal for Gary".
   5. Him and Patrick frame Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy by disguising themselves as them by assaulting and throwing everyone they see in jail for completely unjustified reasons in "Shuffleboarding".
   6. Flooded Bikini Bottom with his crybaby tears in "A Day Without Tears".
   7. Betrayed Plankton and helped Mr. Krabs (who made him almost run over by a bus) in "One Coarse Meal".
   8. Inviting Patrick Star, Sandy Cheeks, Mr. Krabs, Pearl Krabs, Plankton, Larry the Lobster, and Bikini Bottomites to go as far as interrupting and tarnishing Squidward's TV show, stupidly acting like it was a playground, and not to mention; they were the ones responsible for Squidward being kicked out of his house and his own TV show shut down in "Tentacle Vision".
6. He can be mean-spirited and act like a jerk to people at times, though not as bad as Patrick, which is a character downgrade that was unexpected, especially for SpongeBob.
7. His gags have gone from funny and entertaining to irritating and unintelligent.
8. During these seasons, he has a downright creepy obsession towards Squidward for no particular reason to the point of coming off as a stalker, mostly season 6b.
   • In fact, the episode "Boating Buddies" is notable as the turning point where his friendliness towards Squidward has been over-exaggerated to creepy extents during these seasons.
   • On that topic, unlike all the other times that SpongeBob causes trouble to Squidward which are clearly out of his stupidity, cluelessness, or unintentionally by accident, "Choir Boys" instead has him actively causing trouble to Squidward on purpose just to get Squidward to listen to his singing. HE ALSO SAID, "What a lucky break, now I have a captive audience"!
   • "Squid's Visit" has the absolute worst display of SpongeBob's obsession towards Squidward taken too far, as not only does he continuously harasses Squidward by wanting him to visit his house including SpongeBob cries and begging Squidward to visit him at various places, yet he somehow makes an exact replica of Squidward's house down to the tiniest detail (which is implied to be made possible by SpongeBob continuously breaking into Squidward's house way too many times) and lures Squidward over to his house by stealing his vacuum cleaner under the excuse of "borrowing".
   • Granted, before and after these seasons SpongeBob always wanted to be friendly towards Squidward, but not to this extent of being a creepy stalker.
9. His infamously hypocritical quote from "One Coarse Meal", that being "I'm sorry Plankton, but that flies in the face of my 'good nature'."
10. While Tom Kenny still does a good job voicing him, his voice in these seasons is annoyingly high pitched in season 4-7 to the point where he sounds like he is on helium, possibly due to Tom Kenny's aging.
11. He has also turned into a punching bag for the writers in some episodes, most notably "Stuck in the Wringer", which was the only episode when he ever did stand up for himself even when everyone is mean-spirited towards him.
    • Because of this, he generally acts very spineless and barely stands up for himself when he gets pushed around by his friends, much like the "Adult Party Cartoon" version of Stimpy.
12. He, along with Patrick, are more destructive in their antics around Bikini Bottom than ever before.
13. Speaking of which, while he and Patrick are moronic and childish lunatics, they can sometimes come off as masochistic as seen in a season 6 episode called "Cephalopod Lodge" as they willingly electrocute themselves by the tongue for no good reason other than for their own enjoyment.
    • It doesn't help that in a great episode from a bad season like season 7's "Enchanted Tiki Dreams", he and Patrick make an island just for Squidward to enjoy and both of them willingly get themselves hurt to make Squidward happy, and they seem to be cool with all of the physical pain they received.
14. While his design is still cute and recognizable, it can look a bit downgraded in some episodes since it can range from okay (in most episodes) to downright ugly (like when he makes overly detailed facial expressions or when he's off-model).

"I'm Ready!" Qualities

1. He was a much better character in the first six and a half seasons and has massively redeemed himself since season 8.
   • He is also a good character in the first half of season 6. It wasn't until "Boating Buddies" where his flanderization kicked in.
2. At least his flanderization wasn’t depicted in the arcade racing game titled Nicktoons Nitro (which was released in 2009) and also the Super Brawl games from Jingle Brawl to Super Brawl 2.
3. There are a handful of episodes where he's likable and has his original personality such as:
   • "The Krabby Kronicle"
   • "The Slumber Party"
   • "Grooming Gary"
   • “SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One”
   • ”Krusty Krushers”
   • ”The Card”
   • ”Grandpappy the Pirate”
   • ”Professor Squidward” (depending on your view)
   • ”Overbooked”
   • ”No Hat for Pat”
   • ”Toy Store of Doom” (depending on your view)
   • ”Sand Castles in the Sand”
   • ”Chum Bucket Supreme”
   • ”Single Cell Anniversary”
   • ”Truth or Square”
   • ”Chum Caverns”
   • ”I ❤️ Dancing”
   • "Stuck in the Wringer"
   • ”Greasy Baffoons”
   • "Your's Mine, and Mine (despite his usual flanderization, he's still shown to be sympathetic in this episode due to how rude Patrick acts towards him)
   • ”Kracked Krabs”
   • ”SpongeBob’s Last Stand”
   • ”Back to the Past” (depending on your view)
   • ”The Bad Guy Club for Villains”
   • ”Gary in Love” (depending on your view)
   • "The Cent of Money"
   • ”The Great Patty Caper”
   • ”Karate Star”
   • ”Enchanted Tiki Dreams” (except for the first half of the episode)
   • ”The Abrasive Side” (depending on your view)
   • ”Whelk Attack”
   • ”Krusty Dogs”
   • ”Love That Squid” (depending on your view)
   • ”Big Sister Sam”
   • ”Perfect Chemistry”
4. Despite all the annoying things he's done, his intentions aren't bad by any means, and he still cares about his friends.
5. He is still a hardworking employee at the Krusty Krab.
6. As mentioned above, he isn't as much of a mean-spirited jerk as Patrick.
7. He's still pretty optimistic and fun-loving.
8. He spawned some hilarious lines like "Who put you on the planet?".
9. His still has his cute and recognizable character design, despite the fact that it can be a bit mediocre in some episodes
10. Despite his high-pitched voice, Tom Kenny still does an awesome and memorable job voicing him, as always, at least whenever there is no crying or screaming from him.
    • Not surprisingly enough in "Stuck in the Wringer", the screaming from Tom Kenny in the scene where Spongebob snaps at and blames Patrick for his suffering is actually justified here since he needed anger for that to happen and this one is very tolerable.
    • His voice has also returned to its original pitch since season 8.
11. He is still very iconic, as he made numerous appearances in video games, in a lot of shows other than his titular show, appeared in many movies, has a great deal of merchandise (especially toys), had a few amusement park rides, appeared in several comic books and has a ton of home media releases. Heck, he was even lucky enough to have a few Blu Ray releases.
12. Oh, Krusty Krab, Oh, Krusty Krab,
    Oh, how I love you, Krusty Krab,
    Your Krabby Patties from the grill,
    The smell of grease gives me a thrill.
    Oh, Krusty Krab, Oh, Krusty Krab,
    Oh, how I love you, Krusty Krab.
    With prices high and portions small,
    The stains of mustard on the wall.
    Oh, Krusty Krab, Oh, Krusty Krab,
    Oh, how I love you, Krusty Krab.
    [choir men humming the then]
    Oh, Krusty Krab, Oh, Krusty Krab,
    Oh, how I love you, Krusty Krab.
    Oh, Krusty Krab, oh, Krusty Krab,
    Oh, how I love you, Krusty Krab.
    "Oh, Krusty Krab, you've always been there for me. When I'm tired and hungry, I just reach out my hand and there you are, with a Krabby Patty that's oh, so hot and juicy."
    • "Who put YOU on the planet? Ugh!"

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